PARIS -- Thousands of demonstrators flocked to Paris Monday to protest the passage of the Olympic torch as it traveled through the City of Lights.The Olympic torch -- not the Olympic flame -- was extinguished at least once and taken to a bus to be moved to different locations, broadcast reports said. "The Olympic flame was never extinguished," a police spokeswoman told The New York Times.After the interruption, the torch's procession in Paris reportedly resumed. ... [full story]

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- The High Court in Zimbabwe ruled Monday it can hear the country's main opposition party petition to get the results of the presidential election.However, the court said it wouldn't decide until Tuesday whether the matter is urgent enough to determine immediately if the court can compel the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to release the election results, opposition lawyer Andrew Makoni told CNN.Makoni represents the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, who ... [full story]

ATHENS, Greece -- An easyJet flight traveling from Greece to Britain was required to turn around because of a "technical problem," airline officials said.Flight EZY 2002 left for Luton, England, Sunday about 11 p.m. with 119 passengers and landed back in Athens at 40 minutes later, the Daily Telegraph (Britain) reported Monday.The Boeing 737 reportedly had to dump the majority of its fuel and make an emergency landing after a "technical problem" was found in ... [full story]

CHICAGO -- A not-for-profit education company headed by a former member of the Phoenix Suns basketball team says it is interested in taking over a failed Chicago school.Kevin Johnson's St. HOPE education group was expected to be among the fifth round of applicants Monday seeking to create new schools under the Chicago's Renaissance 2010 initiative, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.Johnson turned an after-school program he started at Sacramento High in California into a not-for-profit company that ... [full story]

JERUSALEM -- Israel's internal security agency chief said easing restrictions against Palestinians while security fences remained unfinished posed a grave danger to Israel.Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet, said a security fence separating Israel from the Palestinian territories needs to be completed before any talks on easing Palestinian restrictions proceed, Ynetnews said Monday.His remarks come on the heals of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice where Israeli ... [full story]

TORONTO -- Four Toronto-area men were in hospitalized in critical condition Monday after a speeding van flipped and ejected them onto the highway, police said.Three other men in the van who were wearing seatbelts sustained only minor injuries in the early Sunday crash on Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway. Ontario Provincial Police Constable Dave Woodford told the Globe and Mail emergency responders were "frustrated and upset" by the extent of the injuries the men without ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The nomination of a top diplomatic official is on hold in the Senate over charges of pro-Iranian bias in Voice of America's Persian broadcasts, lawmakers said.James Glassman is slated to succeed Karen Hughes for the top public diplomatic office in the Bush administration, but Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., held up the nomination process in the Senate while awaiting transcripts of VOA's Farsi-language broadcasts, The Washington Times reported Monday.Coburn issued his request to the ... [full story]

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The French government said negotiations with pirate who seized a French luxury yacht en route to Malta may take a while.French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said negotiators are hoping to avoid bloodshed, but the pirates have not come up with demands for ransom or other issues, MaltaMedia.com reported. Pirates are holding all 30 members of the crew hostage. There have been no reports of mistreatment.The luxury yacht is a 288-foot Le Ponant. ... [full story]

DAYTON, Ohio -- The mother of slain U.S. Marine Maria Lauterbach says she is not convinced her daughter's rape allegation against a fellow marine was treated seriously.Mary Lauterbach has sent a list of questions to the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps asking why more wasn't done to protect her daughter from the man who is now accused of killing her, CNN reports.A spokesman for the Marine Corps told CNN the service would respond to ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- A loophole in a U.S. education reform law, No Child Left Behind, allows schools skirt penalties, but points to the broader challenge with the law, critics says.A "safe harbor" provision in the education law allows schools avoid penalties for low tests scores in one group of students if that group shows marginal improvement and the school as a whole does well in general testing.No Child Left Behind was meant to bring schools in ... [full story]